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"Fischelowitz knows as well as you do yourself how safe you are to get the money to-morrow." "Naturally," replied the Count, with great calmness. "But besides that, the Gigerl is broken badly broken in the middle, and the musical box is spoiled too." "Fischelowitz must have been very angry," observed Dumnoff. "Not at all. It was his wife.
But the second porter, having broken the chair, upset a table covered with unused saucers for beer glasses, and otherwise materially contributing to swell the din and increase the already considerable havoc, had regained his feet and lost no time in making for Dumnoff.
To Dumnoff, mujik by origin and by nature, she was "barina," the town "lady," to the Cossack she was "chosjaika," the "mistress," the wife of the "patron" to the Count she was Akulina, and when he addressed her he called her Akulina Feodorovna, adding the derivative of her father's name in accordance with the universal Russian custom. "Let us see the doll," said Schmidt, still curious.
It would have taken a quarter of an hour for them to open it, and if you had only jumped " He turned his head, and glanced at the Count's spare, sinewy figure. "You are light, too," he continued, "and you could not have hurt yourself. I cannot understand why you stayed." "Dumnoff, my friend," said the Count, gravely, "we look at things in a different way.
The Cossack, always observant of such things, looked at the oddly-shaped package which the Count had brought with him, trying to divine its contents and signally failing in the attempt. Dumnoff, who did not like the Count's gentlemanlike manners and fine speech, sullenly stirred the fiery mixture he was concocting.
At the police station the arresting party told their own story in their own way, very much to the disadvantage of the Russians and very much in favour of the porters and of the officials themselves. The latter, indeed, enlarged so much upon the atrocities perpetrated by Dumnoff as to weary the superior officer. The Cossack having escaped, the policemen did not mention him.
"That is my Gigerl!" he repeated, laying one heavy hand upon the board, and thrusting the forefinger of the other under the doll's nose. Dumnoff stared at him with an expression which showed that he did not in the least understand what was happening.
The insignificant girl beside her giggled vacantly. Dumnoff did not seem to have heard the remark. "Nineteen hundred and twenty-three," muttered the Count between his teeth and in Russian, as the nineteenth hundred and twenty-third cigarette rolled from his fingers, and he took up the parchment tongue for the nineteenth hundred and twenty-fourth time that day.
Dumnoff had made off in the opposite direction, in search of breakfast, after which he intended to go directly to the shop, as though nothing had happened. "I spent it very pleasantly, thank you," answered the Count. "The fact is that, with such an interesting day before me, I should not have slept if I had been at home.
"There is Herr Dumnoff," said the Count. The officer smiled and perpetrated an official jest. "Herr Dumnoff has given evidence of great strength, but owing to his peculiar situation at the present time, I cannot trust to the strength of his evidence." The policemen laughed respectfully. "Have you no one else?" asked the officer. "Herr Fischelowitz will willingly vouch for what I say."
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